Saturday, 29 November 2014

I have been challenged, again by my good friend Anthony with, what I assume to be, his mighty troll army.

I on the other hand will go different and play with my Farrow army.

So, what do I seem to be taking...

Let's take a look!

The Golden Horde (Tier 4)

Lord Carver, The Bringer Of Massive Destruction, Esquire III (+6pts)

Warhog (8pts)

Warhog (8pts)

Razor Boar (2pts)

Rorsh and Brine (9pts)

Max Brigands (7pts)

Max Brigands (7pts)

The general idea of this list is to dig in, and make it extremely difficult for you to remove me. The two Warhogs and two Max Brigands allow me to play two different cases of "Hammer and Anvil" while Rorsh and Brine flank as needed. Meaning, if this becomes a two objective game, we can hold both effectively as well.

Well this is rough planning, what actually happens with the mission etc we'll have to wait and see.

Battle Group: Tanks, Hammers

So, the battle group will fill two different roles.

Firstly they can act as Tanks, under Carver's Mobility and Batten Down The Hatches, these guys all go up to 20/21 with 17 the exception on the

razor Boar. Mobility makes them incredibly mobile with +2 SPD so they'll be advancing as quickly as a Legion army!

Needless to say, Carver himself will be quiet for the first two turns, handing out these spells cost 5 Fury and since they aren't up keeps, he is dangerously low.

The RazorBoar will stick close to Carver as a transfer target, and if needed, can be a mini rocket for a problematic solo.

The Warhogs will attack as needed, they can help each other to cast Massacre and then Fury themselves up to gain possible +8 Strength... I've never gone that high but could be a laugh!

Hopefully The Pig Joker and Pig Hulk will hit something this time as it seems they hit a barn door recently.

Group 2: 2x Max Brigands

Under Carver's tier list they come a point cheaper, with Combined Range Attack and Fearless while in his CMD. I'm going to use these guys to clog up charge lanes, contest objectives and be a general nuisance!

Hopefully, they'll be able to hold the enemy in place while my Warhogs go in with Quagmire from Carver, or, they'll be able to deal a lot of damage during feat turn. With Hog Wild, they can CRA then charge, with effective POW10 weapon masters.

Pretty handy if done correctly!

Group 3: Rorsh and Brine

Batman!!! Robin!!!!! Yea these guys are going to be a nuisances and flank to hit some back row support and objectives.

So that's the rough plan, got pretty much everything sorted. The game will take place Monday so keep an eye out for the Bartle report!

The most common of these is "Hammer and Anvil" and will explain how this works.

Your "Anvil" is typically a unit which will take the majority of the opponents damage, and will hold an opponent in place while other aspects of your army does what is needed. This can be due to high defence, high ARM or sheer volume of models. What ever you use, they have to have the ability to stay on the board! So how would they be used in game? Let's see...

Firstly we have a staggered approach. By only presenting your opponent a fraction of the unit at a time, you can potentially hold them there for much longer and only fully commit when you absolutely need them to be held in place. As seen above, "Anvil" units can be very helpful in contesting zones, as there staying power should have to force your opponent to direct more resources in removing you.

The other way to use them, is to use them as a "Jamming Anvil". Look at the placement below to get an idea.

By running you unit beyond the zone, it will allow other aspects of you army to capture zones or objectives, or even allow slower aspects of your army to advance. If doing there job well enough, they should help stem the flow of models into the zone you are trying to dominate/control and allow you to easily pick off the stragglers who do manage to break through to the circle.

The same this able to be done with objectives by forming a perimeter around the objective.

Hammers. Now these guys are your damage dealers. You want them To be fresh and ready to go at the slightest opportunity. Because of the savage nature of WarmaHordes, it's not easy to shield things and you might find you are being targeted early.

Now above is an example of Hammer and Anvil. The first line is there to provide the buffer, now that they've taken the hit, the Hammer is free to either skate around the flank, or join in and take out priority targets.

An army can have any number or "Hammers" or "Anvil". But don't delegate the wrong role to the wrong unit.

The second tactic is Refused Flanking.

This is where, during deployment, your create a flanking attack with the more powerful units. Hoping to punch through a flank first then "sweep" the rest of the army as they have the rear and can target supports every easily.

Units can be any number of things here.

I'm our case we have 2 maximum units of Ogryns they can provide as both Hammer or Anvil, a term we refer to as "Tanking"

Supports you add to you list as you need to. These are self explanatory since you'll end up always taking the same stuff.

Now, game plan.

I think of this in 3 Stages. Early Game, Mid Game, Late Game.

What I your plan for early game? You need to think about how you are going to approach the enemy, do you want to give away board control, do you want to dictate control, do you run forward, do you have an support which can help you? In Thagrosh case, everything will run forward with the help of Fog of War. Draconic Blessing support and death shroud in case lol.

Mid game, I think of the primary damage dealing. Ideally ive placed my Ogryns in a way that I'm just out of charge range and

I will get the charge off first.

Mid game is where the war of attrition Will start for my list. At this point I'm looking to start clearing objectives and skill Back field support. So like artillery.

So this is where people lose there games on , the end game. You've now dealt damage and taken loads in return, your caster may nearly be dead now after taking a hit or two. So what's the plan?

There is either, push with scenario, keep clearing for points, or attempt assassination. In the end game, with both armies having lost majority of forces, there should be gaps showing in the line. The end game is quite stable because Thagrosh is a very good late gamer. His feat allows for a respawned warbeast which can really swing the game.

Now you've come up with a plan.

In our case,

We have 2 fully Tanked up units.

1 support unit in the Spawning vessel.

Thagrosh with his battle group down middle. Two Ogryns either side advance either side while benefitting from Fog and Death Shroud!

Always remember point effectiveness.

You are spending 10pts on a "hammer", that unit should then kill at least 10pts. Similarly, you don't expect much killing in forms of "Anvils" but they should still be able to pull down a few models.

Having had the pleasure do playing with competitive, beginner and casual players, I believe I have enough experience to be able to show what I go through when making Warmachine and Hordes army lists.

Now this started with Warhammer 40k, and being a mathematics under graduate, I applied a lot of maths to what ever game I played. Something which is commonly called "MathHammer" in table top society. And in due course I will post about Warhammer 40k list building, but for now, we shall continue with WarmaHordes.

Firstly, I'd like to say that this is my method of thinking, it may work for some and others not. And in no way is it the best.

Now let's look at my current favourite list.

50pts

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight (+5pts)

Ravagore 10pts

Scythean 9pts

Seraph 8pts

Naga Nightlurker 5pts

Max Warspears w/ UA 10pts

Max Warspears w/ UA 10pts

Warmonger Warchief 0pts

Max Spawning Vessel 3pts

Now let's go through the steps.

1a) Who is my 'lock or 'caster? And most importantly, what is my "Win Condition"?

"Win Condition" is pretty simple, how are you looking to win, scenario, assassination or death clock? In my case scenario is most likely.

1b) What sort of 'lock/caster are they? Either...

Frontline, down and dirty.

Midfield, supportive caster with good support spells. May lack arc nodes.

1c) What spellsdo I have. Do I have abilities that would be perfect for my plan? Thagrosh has Death Shroud, Fog of War and Draconic Blessing. I identify him as Frontline/Mid. He wants to be close enough to support Ogryns but is still a little squishy to be totally upfront.

2a) What tactic do I employ. These will be explained in latter course.

Either...

*Hammer and Anvil

*Refused Flank

*Attrition

2b) Now this is where it gets tricky. How do I achieve my "win condition"? Now this is where you need to pick you "win unit". This can either be a model or unit which will play a vital hand. In this case, Ogryn Warpspears are my "win unit". Potentially POW17 assaulting unit is something to be afraid of.

2c) Does my tier list allow me any significant benefits while not restricting anything that may seem integral to my plan? In this case yes. 2" extra deployment and a free Warmonger.

3a) Now that has been identified, you should now have an idea of what you want in your army.

Now, I regularly refer to units as one of three types or a combination.

"Hammers" Units which deal damage, or volume of Attacks to remove models.

"Anvils" units which hold up opponents.

"Supports" units which provide a role which is niche among the army.

I've just realised, this next part is pretty large, so will continue in another blog ost. Ciao!!!

Tuesday, 11 November 2014

What a game, few miniatures, stamping killing, breaking necks. What more do you want?

Well personally I'm a third Edition Blood Bowl player. I love the tactical plays with it and the fluidity of the game.

But on Friday coming, we'll be playing Second edition. Riot is an avid Blood Bowl second edition fan so, we all decided to go back an edition! I knowLizardmen aren't technically insecond edition, but Riot has kindly altered some Ratmen rules to roughly resemble the lizards!

Many moons ago, we played a Blood Bowl tournament, in which I bought a team, and when I say "team" I meant I bought loads of random models which I loved the look of! They all have a sort of Reptilian theme going so it all goes!

Now starting from the survivors from last seasons Blood Bowl, these guys were painted, and played an active role during the season!

So without further ado, I present The E-Reptile Dysfunction Team!

Pre-Season

Firstly, my first two Saurii. While not lizards, I like the idea of big turtles blocking your way with nice big shields.

This is my "Big Guy". Now in Third edition this guy totally unusable. The wrong base size means he can't fit. But in second edition where I was first introduced, he is 100% legitimate!

My Skinks, only four were painted. But I like to think that they represent a wide variety of reptilian life!

Finally of the original team was my Turn Marker. He has another little buddy waiting as a ReRoll counter who isn't painted.

E-Reptile Dysfunction's Summer Transfer Window.

E-Reptile Dysfunction have been very active this window! Fully recruiting for their team and getting ready for the upcoming season!

(In reality, Riot and I agreed to play a game of Bloodbowl and I didn't want to disappoint with unpainted miniatures. So I went on a painting spleeeerrrrgggg)

Joining the new Saurii this season are some much needed back bone. Three of these guy were bought from Meiko Miniatures and the other from Crocodile Games. The sculpting quality from Meiko was actually pretty atrocious but I did my best in painting them. Although Crocodile Games, I have to give it to you, you guys did a fantastic job in design, sculpting and casting.

Also new this season, was some squishy legs to quickly carry the ball. 3 new Skinks added to the Team giving me 1 Spare incase of an *accident*

Yet again, I have to say, unfortunately, Meiko miniatures let me down in the casting quality.

So, what would a team be, without a Coach?! The first of my background staff, Coach Omar Croco Kalid. Again, another model from Crocodile Games and another fantastic Sculpt! He need a little more work similar to the Skinks above, mainly basing and a few highlights.

Thanks for looking people, for that is my current team. Come back Friday or Saturday and il have a Blood Bowl Match Day report ready!

That with the amount of infantry I have in this army, I simply cannot let Madrak get his feat into the middle of my army.

Can you imagine the destruction!!

Unfortunately, the mission we rolled was Into The Beach.

As I said in my previous blog post, I needed a scenario with little objectives in order to keep my army in formation and move in a solid unit.

On the up side, between our armies, it looked spectacular! Apart from a single unpainted model.

Anthony went to the effort to even make an objective marker for this game!

Isn't it pretty!!

It was stolen from my idea of making this objective marker

Anyway, back to the game and deployment.

Anthony won the roll off and elected to deploy first very simply with Battle Group down the middle Lug and Burrowers to my right.

Giving me a dilemma, ideally I'd like the grotesque and spawning vessel opposing the enemy infantry and collecting the resulting corpses, but I had a hunch that Madrak and his battle group was going to head for the zone which unopposed, would net him 2 points a turn. Some thing which I couldn't let him do.

So I placed my "anvil" unit upfront to hold the control zone and the swordsmen behind waiting for the right time to counter. I field the bolt thrower and Shephard a little further to my right to try to hold Lug away from my right.

I plan on holding the left, going for the destruction points on the objective opposite,and once Lug had been taken care of, race Lylyth over to the flag to hold. As it turns out, plans never go toft!

So, add the game starts, Madrak and his buddies move as I thought towards the zone, and Lug with the Pygs move towards the Flag. Everything running as per usual.

Silly ugly unpainted models.

Pygs approach the flag.

Meanwhile during my turn, everything runs too with the exception of the Battlegroup.

The Seraph and Lylyth both use Slipstream to help get a few more inches. The former allowing the latter to just get into range with her bow.

An unfortunate Troll Impaler just happens to be within range and Lylyth takes a sneaky pop through the trees. After landing, she uses her Witch Mark effect to automatically hit with the Bad Blood spell. Being able to get such a spell off early is very beneficial. Forcing the Warlock to choose between taking damage or frenzying the Warbeast, or in subsequent turns not want to fury up the warbeast!

With that, the turn was ended.

Both sides had run into position, and the ensuing turns would lead to Carnage, quite literally!!

The beginning of turn two and Madrak was ready to mobilise. All the war beasts advanced and let fly scattering bombs and thrown spears. Very few hit the mark except a scattering Bomb which deviated to the 1 ahead and promptly blew up 2 Grotesques.

Unfazed, the Grotesques still advance.

Meanwhile, on the right hand flank, Anthony's Pyg Burrowers had surprised me to running STRAIGHT into me!

Now that took me off guard... I wasn't expecting these guys to be a threat for at least another turn.

Now I have a major dilemma. Madrak is right there for the taking if I get lucky with my damage rolls. But if that fails, he WILL kill a lot of my army and those Pygs will destroy stuff in the resulting aftermath.

I decide to go for Madrak. Lylyth pops feat to have a go at him, with the Seraphs 2 shots, we bounce off, only dealing 6 damage to him while he transferred 12 damage worth.

Lastly, my Spawn Vessel spawns a Stinger, and true to his word, he makes a bee line for Madrak. Having hit, then told him its 4d6 damage, he promptly uses his scroll to waive the damage.

The Groteques receive a Charge/Run order. To tie up models and shield Lylyth from the incoming Pygs.

Now I'm fearing the Feat, I've left a gap between the front line and my second line to hopefully minimise the damage.

Strangely enough, Madrak doesn't choose to pop his feat yet, but relying on his sheer weight of attacks from his Warbeasts he ploughs through the infantry before him. The control zone is looking like his, I'm left with a few infantry but it does look like my Swordsmen will get a counter charge off.

To make matters a little worse, two throws from the Bomber scatter nicely and land directly over my spawning vessel unit. FUCK! Eurgh... That Bomber is getting annoying! Now my collection range is smaller and I'm not moving very fair anymore. At least their bodies are feeding the spawning vessel!

Still hiding behind her Grotesque meat shield *drum roll* the Pygs now burrow into the ground... Fuck, now these guys are going to cause more problems.

Legion are suppose to have good board control but it seems Lylyth is struggling here! Meanwhile, this fucking Bear keeps coming closer. I need to find a way to get rid of it this turn.

At the end of Trollbloods turn 3, this is what the board looks like.

I'm now being cornered, and my Objective is now being threatened. I have a cunning plan to try get rid of Lug. I think, if I can get rid of Lug, Lylyth can hold the Flag while the rest of the army controls or contests the zone and destroy the objective.

The Nephilim, who may I say, has done nothing the whole game... Takes a shot at Cragback, hits, boosted damage since he has Stronghold up, and deals 3 damage... Then the Naga walks up and misses with the boost... Fuck him, fuck my life and fuck this game...

I send the Seraph to destroy the objective. 3 shots all hit, and I deal 13 out 15 damage to it.

Lylyth, who Bushwacked away from Lug, watches as everyone can't kill it or Cragback!

I also moved away to hopefully minimise how many Burrowers get to shoot me.

As everything moves forwards onto the point to try clog it, I'm still trying to space out so Madrak can't Pac Man his way though my infantry.

Looking back, I really didn't space everything well. I was hoping he would miss at least once or twice!

So, here comes Madrak. He pops feat, and 1 minute later...

Thankfully, he missed my Forsaken once, and when he bought an attack against the first Swordsmen, even with Carnage cast, he rolls SNAKE EYES!!!!!

*Victory Jiggle*

The Pygs come up right in front of Lylyth, but needing 10 to hit, he has no luck with the 5 that was in range.

After Madrak failed to reach Lylyth within feat, he was left within charge range of my Blighted Nyss Swordsmen.

With all the residual damage from Bad Blood and Odd damage here and there, the first Swordsmen swings, connects, and with 4d6 carves Madrak in half.

This was a terribly close game. Lylyth was very close to being caught as she was running out of room to play with and Madrak was about to slice her with his massive axe of doom.

What did I learn...

1) learn to space out my infantry. Times like this shows that wrong placement can cost me squads of infantry.

2) Lylyth needs more heavy hitting models to take more advantage of her support.

Wednesday, 5 November 2014

So as the title suggests, I am doing another battle report! This time, against my good friend Anthony. It will be an titanic clash against Trollbloods with my Everblight. I will be going into this game the same as I did against Riot last week, il be using units and models that I've rarely used, in order to get me motivated to paint them! Having Unpainted models is simply ugly!

Anyway, similar to my list previously, this is what il be taking. And while I'm here I will go through what I hope to achieve and my battle plan.

Lylyth, Herald of Everblight (+6pts)

Seraph (8pts)

Nephilim Bolt Thrower (6pts)

Naga Nightlurker (5pts)

Max Spawning Vessel (3pts)

Max Blighted Nyss Grotesques (6pts)

Min Blighted Nyss Swordsmen (5pts)

Blighted Nyss Shephard (1pt)

The Forsaken (2pts)

Incubi (5pts)

The Plan

Now. If you read my previous blog, you'll realise that the list here is very similar to my previous one and the exception is the newer Warbeasts.

And some people reading this will be looking at certain models and unit and be exclaiming "why have you never used these, these are stables and auto included in an Everblight Army!" While that is true, I understand the importance of some of these models and my simple explanation is, they weren't painted and they never got used. The units here that il be using to get some more experience using them is the Seraph, Bolt Thrower, Naga, Grotesques and Lylyth. While I have used Lylyth a hefty amount during my early days of WarmaHordes, it's only recently I look back at some of my older casters and see how effectively to use them.

Now the ACTUAL plan. This list lacks an effective heavy punch, which is why Lylyth with Parasite will be key to take down some of the heavier guys. If Anthony is carrying Troll Moses and the Stone Bearers, then il have some trouble in dealing with that. The Grotesques will be my buffer as usual, to hold up parts of his army while my Swordsmen can *hopefully* put dents into big shit. Il go into more detail later.

The Warbeasts job will be to snipe whatever comes my way, since this is a rough plan, I'm not entirely sure how and what! Hopefully the scenario mission will be kinder to me this time. I am planning in going for Scenario kill, I don't think I have enough power behind this list to go for an Assasination win baring a major fuck up on Anthony part.

Photo Porn and Army

Going into this fight il splitting my army into 3 Effective groups.

Group 1- Battle Group, Shephard, Forsaken.

This should be a fairly simple job. Lylyth marks things for shooting and charges, and throws out her supporting spells like Parasite and Bad Blood.

I plan on using the Naga as an opportunity targetter. May try to get a few critical a on heavy models. Critical melee is Shadow Binding (target can not move except to change facing and suffers-3Def), and critical shooting is Poison ( additional die damage against living models). He comes is useful with his animus which will be handy if Anthony uses Madrak. Madrak with Sure Foot makes his beasts annoyingly difficult to hit, the Naga's animus with Blessed will help mitigate that.

Seraph for thinning out infantry and solo sniping and more importantly his animus of Slipstream. Allowing extra 2" placement is great for positioning purposes.

The Bolt Thrower will hopefully get a few critical Knockdowns. Also being at POW14, might get lucky with damage with decent rolls!

With the Forsaken and Shephard, Forsaken to roam and take Fury from my models. I will also pair the Bolt Thrower to the Shephard. The Shepard has Beast Handling, allowing Warbeasts in her CMD to be forced outside of CTRL Range. Meaning the Bolt Thrower can flank for better angles independent of Lylyth.

All in all, my Battlegroup will be roaming. Needed wherever they are. They won't be dealing huge points of damage or on the front lines. But will support the other aspects of the army as seemed fit.

Group 2 - The "Anvil", Spawning Vessel, Grotesques.

When playing SteamRoller missions, it is vastly important to have board control. I'm taking the Grotesques as a "Jammer/Anvil" to block the control zone with the Spawning Vessel behind to support then. These guys will take the brunt of the attack thrown at me. I know people say that Grotesques are rubbish and for the same price you take Legionnaires, who, do everything the Grotesques do and better. And to be honest, I agree, but, these guys deserve a chance to show what they can do, and everytime I've used them, they don't do that bad a job. So between these two units, I'm hoping that they provide enough weight of numbers to hold the opponent off and away from objectives.

At POW11 weapon masters, I'm hoping with the help of Parasite, they can do a fair bit of damage. Being Fearless also helps as the Forsaken won't scare them.

I'm thinking of two ways to use them. Firstly, flanking, if the "Anvil" manages to hold the opponent, these guys can hit flanks or secondary objectives.

Secondly, if the "Anvil" doesn't last long, these guys can act as a counter charge unit to clear opposing units, the objective area or objectives themselves

The Incubi are there for several reasons. Firstly, as a shooting deterent. If people know that shooting or killing an infantry will give rise to these so close to enemy lines, they will think twice about it.

My logic behind this is the use with a Spawning Vessel. Since the Vessel can only carry 3 corpses, any kills after the third is technically wasted, that is where the Incubi pop out. Therefore reducing the waste corpses. By the time this happens, I should hopefully be within charge range on my next activation. Logic as I say, maybe the application maybe more difficult!

Also worthy of note, these guys pack 2 POW11s with combo strike. With the placement schenanigans afford to these guys, they can get some sneaky charges against unsuspecting models.

Conclusion

I've gone for single Hammer and single Anvil on the belief that at the small point limit we'll only be fighting over a single objective at the time. If the scenario calls for a fight on multiple fronts then Lylyth and the Warbeasts will have to get stuck in harder.